At the end of the Trust's complaint process, a customer may choose to ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate their complaint if they still are dissatisfied.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about the housing organisations that are registered with it. The service is free, independent and impartial. It can advise customers at any stage of the complaint process, even if you are unsure about whether to make a complaint.
You can read more about the service on the Housing Ombudsman website.
In the year we received no full file requests about complaints that went to the Housing Ombudsman but received four determinations from previous years from the service.
Changes to the code
In February 2024, the Housing Ombudsman confirmed the changes which all landlords had to be compliant with by 1st April 2024 as the Complaint Handling Code became statutory from that date. The Trust have completed an annual self-assessment of compliance with the Code. Customers views are important to us, so we consulted with residents who said they wanted to get involved and asked them if they agreed if we are compliant with the code.
There have been a number of changes to the complaints process due to the updated code, the main one being the removal of the ‘quick fix’ stage (2 day response). We now offer ‘service requests’ where we will respond to your complaint within 3 working days if it is the first time you have let us know about the issue.